What to do right now
- Check the Recycle Bin, then the place the archive came from: the download page, an email, a chat or the cloud.
- If it was the only copy, stop writing to the drive and scan it for ZIP, RAR, 7z and TAR files.
- Test the recovered archive, and if it is damaged, extract what you can or repair a ZIP into a new archive.
Step by step
Look for another copy first
Open the Recycle Bin and sort by date deleted. If it is not there, check your browser's download history, which usually lists the original address, as well as email attachments, chat apps and cloud folders. A fresh download is always cleaner than a recovered file.
Stop writing to the drive
Archives are often large, so even one new download can land on part of the space you need. Avoid saving anything to that drive, and if it is drive C:, run the FileFix Ultimate portable ZIP from a USB stick.
Scan with Deleted file recovery
Open Deleted file recovery, select the drive and start the scan. Filter the results for ZIP, RAR, 7z or TAR, and search for part of the file name if you remember it. You can look at results while the scan is still running.
Pick the best result
Prefer results found through file records, which keep their name and folder, and those marked verified with high confidence. If you see several candidates of similar size, save them all and test each one.
Save to another disk and test it
Save the archive to a different physical disk and open it in your usual archive tool. Use its test function, if it has one, to check every entry before you delete anything else.
Rescue what you can from a damaged archive
If a ZIP reports CRC errors or an unexpected end, open Damaged file repair and create a repaired copy, which rebuilds a new ZIP from the entries that can be read. For RAR or 7z, extract the entries that still work with your archive tool.
Why an archive can come back only partly
Archives are usually larger than documents, and large files are more likely to be stored in several pieces on the disk. When the file record survives, the scan knows where every piece is. When it is gone, signature search finds the start of the archive but has to assume the rest follows on, which is not always true.
A partly recovered archive is not necessarily useless. Inside a ZIP, every entry has its own local header and checksum, so the entries before the damaged area can often be read and saved. Only entries whose data is missing or overwritten stay broken, and those cannot be corrected without another copy of the original.
ZIP, RAR and 7z behave differently
A ZIP keeps its index, the central directory, at the very end of the file. If the end is cut off, many tools refuse to open the archive, but the repair in FileFix Ultimate can rebuild a new index from the local entries. Office files such as DOCX and XLSX use the same container, which is why the same repair helps them.
RAR and 7z archives are found during recovery but are not repaired by FileFix Ultimate. A 7z archive stores its main header near the end, so a truncated 7z is often hard to open at all. RAR archives may be repairable with the archiver's own repair command, which tends to work better if the archive was created with a recovery record.
Split, encrypted and downloaded archives
Split archives, such as parts named .part1.rar or .z01, need every part. If one part cannot be recovered, the entries that run across it are lost, although files stored entirely in other parts may still extract.
A password-protected archive keeps its password after recovery; recovery does not remove or bypass encryption. If the archive was only ever a download, look again at the source before spending time on a scan, because the original is the most reliable copy.
When recovery will not work
- The archive was on an SSD with TRIM, and the space was cleared soon after deletion.
- New downloads or copies to the same drive overwrote the space after the deletion.
- One part of a split archive is missing and cannot be found.
- The archive is encrypted and you no longer know the password.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Restores deleted archives with their names and folders from NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT records.
- Finds ZIP, RAR, 7z and TAR archives by signature when the records are gone.
- Rebuilds a damaged or truncated ZIP into a new archive from the entries that can still be read.
- Saves only to another disk and never writes to the drive being scanned.
FileFix Ultimate is free for personal use, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Business use needs a one-year licence per PC. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I recover a ZIP I deleted after extracting it?
Often yes, if the drive has not been heavily used since. If you still have the extracted files, though, you may not need the archive at all; check whether they are complete first.
The recovered archive opens, but some files show errors.
Those entries lie in an area that is missing or overwritten. Extract the entries that pass the test, and for a ZIP create a repaired copy to rescue the rest of the readable entries.
Why does the recovered archive have a different name?
Archives found by signature have no stored file name, so a generic name is given. Results from file records keep their original names.
Does recovery remove the password from an archive?
No. The archive is recovered as it was, including its encryption. You still need the password to open the protected entries.
Can a deleted TAR or TAR.GZ backup be found?
TAR archives are among the recognised signatures. For compressed variants such as TAR.GZ, check the scan results yourself rather than assuming they appear, and if the backup came from a NAS, look at its own recycle bin or snapshots too.